DH has been refused compassionate leave to attend his grandfathers funeral.

[KitKat1985]

Just that really. Apparently they will only grant compassionate leave at his workplace for funerals it it's the funeral of a parent, sibling, spouse or one of your kids. A grand-parent is apparently too distant a relative for them to grant compassionate leave for. Is this standard? It seems a bit harsh to me.

Can he take some holiday time?

I think that's the mandatory minimum, yes.

Compassionate leave usually only for immediate relatives IME. It's normal to be expected to take annual leave.

Fairly standard. Are they saying he can't go or just that he'll need to take annual leave/unpaid leave/make the time up?

Oh. Maybe it is more standard than I thought then. I do understand there has to be some limits, but I'm surprised a grand-parent isn't considered a close enough relative to use compassionate leave for. He's been told he can only have annual leave as well if it's convenient for the team (we don't yet have a date for the funeral because his grandfather only died very recently).

Standard. Wouldn't have occurred to me to ask. I'd have booked leave - or if at very short notice, told them I was taking leave, then 'booked' officially afterwards IF that was acceptable in my role and workplace.

I was given compassionate for mine but I was especially close. It's not the norm,,sadly.

I can't think of anywhere that would give compassionate leave for a grandparents funeral. It would have to be taken as annual leave.

Oh I'm clearly very out of touch with current HR policy then, but then to be fair I've always been very lucky with managers about these types of things. I was, for example, allowed some compassionate leave a couple of years ago to attend an uncle's funeral. Obviously not the norm then.

I think that is the standard minimum, yes.
It then depends on all sorts of things like the type of work you do and if you need to be covered, and if it needs to be the whole day and if you can work at home to do a bit of catch up and how long you've been there and if you've gone 'above and beyond' in the past, etc.,etc.,etc. and also the amount of discretion that your line manager has.

A lot will give more, but then equally, there are an awful lot of employees across the country who have worked their way through several 'grandparents funerals', which also makes employers skeptical in some companies

It's a difficult time but that's standard for most employers, sorry.

Harsh but if your DH wants to attend the funeral and support his bereaved parent then he has to do it on his own time out of annual leave.

I got compassionate leave for my grandmother but not my uncle.

Standard in the public sector but it would be mean for them to then turn down his request for leave to attend if it wasn't "convenient" for the team.

Let the poor bugger go, even if he has to take leave to do so.

I hate to say this but I've temped for a long time and when it came to my mother dying and arranging her funeral the whole time I took off (8 days in total) was unpaid.

Get his employers to have a look at this www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=4977

Sounds standard to me

Perfectly normal. Take a days leave, why wouldn't he? How much time off for you need for a funeral??

Yes, standard. I had to fight HR on behalf of an employee who lost a grandparent unexpectedly at the end of the year and had used all his annual leave up to be able to have unpaid leave.

In all the places I have worked it needs to be annual leave for anything other than parent, partner, sibling or spouse. The only exception I saw was a girl
Who was brought up by grandparents so she saw her grandfather as a father.

Normal I'm afraid.

In all places I have worked it would be holiday.

In fact DH and I had to take holiday for his GF funeral a few years ago.